Tullamore"s long trip to Belfast proves fruitful with cup victory

The long journey to Belfast last Saturday was worth every kilometre for supporters with this great win by Tullamore in the first round of this year"s cup. The second round draw will take place on Saturday evening in Bective"s Clubhouse in Donnybrook and with this open draw any one of the other seven sides remaining will be awaited with enthusiasm. After four minutes on Saturday, the outcome was in doubt as a porous defence had leaked an easy try to the home side when their No. 10 waltzed through to score. The easy conversion was missed when the ball rebounded of the post. Tullamore did not let the setback of conceding an early try affect them and they slowly got into their game and began to take control in the forwards, which allowed the backs to take on the home back line. It took the visitors only ten minutes to get on the scoreboard with a penalty from Gearoid O"Grady. Some of the rolling mauls by the Tullamore forwards were terrific and gained huge ground. Tullamore were harshly penalized midway through the half when they were camped on Cooke"s line for some minutes and looked certain to score. After 28 minutes, justice was done when Gearoid kicked a penalty to put the visitors in the lead. A certain try for Tullamore was lost just before half-time when the referee adjudged a forward pass against Gearoid following his brilliant run and a peach of an offload to the supporting Polonga Pedro. A half-time lead of 6-5 was a poor return for Tullamore after a very entertaining first half in perfect conditions. Tullamore took up where they left off and dominated the second half and, with a little more clinical finishing of chances, they would have run out easy winners. As it was, it took 14 minutes for Tullamore to increase their lead with another penalty from Gearoid. After 33 minutes the decisive score came after. Backs and forwards combined for Ronan Glennon to give a well timed pass to Polonga to race clear and score in the corner. To cap it off, Gearoid kicked the conversion from the touchline. Seven minutes into injury time, Cooke burst through for a consolation try and full-time was blown after the failed kick. This was a very impressive performance by Tullamore after such a poor start with team captain Gearoid O"Grady having a terrific game with his kicking, leadership and general play. Full-back Richie Hughes exuded confidence in everything he did and Ivor Scully"s work-rate was excellent. It is well known in rugby that forwards win matches and backs determine by how much. Never was this more true than on Saturday and the 8 starting forwards and the 2 replacements had great games. Dave Hanlon had is best game of the season and led the pack very well. The Print Plus (Tony McCormack) man of the match was Polonga Tau"Alupe-Pedro, better known as Peaches. TEAM: 15. Richie Hughes, 14. Colin Hughes, 13. Ivor Scully, 12. Aaron Deverell, 11. Mark Whelan, 10. Gearoid O"Grady. 9. Adam Hughes, 1. Ronan Glennon, 2. Cian Glennon, 3. Steve McQuaid, 4. Dave Hanlon, 5. Ivor Deverell, 6. Polonga Pedro, 7. Rob Connor, 8. Donal Milne. REPLACEMENTS used: Derek Farrell, Alvin Bracken, Andy Melville. Not used: Cathal Feighrey, Cian Sullivan, Paul O"Grady, Darragh Lowry. FIXTURES 1ST TEAM home to Wicklow in Leinster League Div 1 on Sunday with a 2.30pm K.O. 2ND TEAM home to Wicklow in Provincial 2nds League Div 1 on Sunday (1pm). U-20s TEAM home to Tullow in Gale League Cup on Saturday at 7.30pm.